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@Riot: Petition to use Double Elimination in Season 4 Worlds

Soraka Goes Mid·9/26/2013, 3:12:35 AM·10 votes·1,360 views

Riot, there has been discussion about the inferiority of the group stage + single elimination tournament format used in this year's Worlds tournament which has, to my knowledge, gone unnoticed (or at least unanswered) by Riot. Therefore, I have decided to make a centralized petition listing the reasons why I and other members of the community believe a double elimination format would be superior in season 4.

  1. The single elimination format is less exciting for the fans. Many fans were watching Worlds this year with the hope of seeing Cloud 9 make it to the finals, but we were only able to see them play in 3 games. This was incredibly disappointing to many fans.

  2. As an extension of this, the number of viewers on the stream decreased significantly after Cloud 9 was eliminated from the tournament. Riot would gain more viewers throughout the tournament by using a double elimination tournament.

  3. Many have stated that it is somewhat unfair that half of the Bye teams only get to play 2-3 games, while the teams they defeated get to play 8 games in the group stages. This is unfair not only for the teams, as some of the teams, Gama Bears for example, came all the way to the US only to play 2 games, then leave, but also for the fans, who get to see fewer games of the Bye teams who should be showcased more for their accomplishment in reaching the quarterfinals.

  4. In addition, there has been discussion about whether having a Bye gives teams an advantage or a disadvantage, even in the official Riot interviews with the players. This should not be a factor in deciding the winner of the tournament. The winner should be the team with the greatest skill, not the team that was given more opportunity to adjust to jetlag. Using a double elimination format would lessen this problem.

  5. Some people have stated that it would take too much time to use a double elimination format. However, there are two full days between the quarterfinals and semifinals with no games, and a full week between the semifinals and finals. Riot could surely fit another set of games in that empty space for the loser's bracket. If time was truly an issue in this, Riot could have the loser's bracket matches occurring at the same time as the winner's bracket (say, in a different room) and show these on a secondary stream. This is what happens in Starcraft II tournaments, most of which use the double elimination format, and these tournaments often have 64 players, much more than the 8 teams in the League Worlds tournament.

  6. Since Riot uses random seeding as opposed to performance-based seeding, there is a decent possibility of the best team and the second best team in a tournament facing each other in the first round. This will eliminate the second best team, even though they would have made it to the finals if they had faced any other team. Because of this, they get the decreased prize for 5-8th place and are unable to showcase their true abilities. This case would obviously not occur in every tournament, but it is a distinct possibility.

  7. Worlds is supposed to be the biggest tournament of the year. NA and EU LCS teams play 5 games each per week, so isn't it a little strange that some teams only get to play 2 games total in the year's biggest tournament?

I'm sure I have likely missed a few reasons as well. If there are any other good reasons which are brought up I will add them to this post.

tl;dr Riot, the tournament would be more enjoyable for fans and fairer for teams in the tournament if a double elimination format was used for the top 8 teams.

6 Comments

A Dying Dream9/26/2013, 6:36:50 AM3 votes

Just sayin

http://imgur.com/IqUEouh

Will be VERY disappointed next year if it is the same format at this year.

Flaming June9/26/2013, 7:05:09 AM1 votes

If we didn't use the current set up of 4 byes (decided by an all-star tournament composed of player voted in players that may or may not even work well together) followed directly by a single elimination bracket starting at quarter finals then... well things could be a lot better.

A double elimination bracket scales better for starters. Each and every region can be given a bye (let's say... past the first round in the winners bracket, or if there is an IPL Styled group stages they get put beyond that). Regions that are still up and coming can eventually be fit in... you know, instead of this "wild card" stuff.

There's no "teams coming in cold" or "teams only got to play this many matches" going on. Players don't have to see their favorite teams play 2 games and be out. If you need more teams to fill a bracket because another region came in then you can always find ways to pull more teams from other regions based on whatever criteria you can find.

The only other thing I want, besides a decent double elimination setup, is for the way bans are handled to be reworked in some way that will allow us to see some different picks or, more importantly, the picks we all WANT to see but nobody will LET us see. Remember Season 1? We never got to see Hotshot play Nidalee in a match that REALLY mattered. This season? We probably won't get to see any of these legendary Zed players actually play the champion. There's just no systems in place to even potentially allow it.

What if in a Best of (x) set of games each team got to pick a champion before bans started. The team that got the first "free pick" would give the other team the first two ACTUAL picks after bans. (If you're having trouble picturing this, think the same set up we have now, except after bans instead of starting with one pick, it's two picks, and goes from there)

And then what if in that same Best of (x) set teams got to ban a champion that was played by the enemy team for the rest of the set. As an example, let's say Regi picks Zed as his teams "free" pick before bans on TSM. After the match... Curse or whoever they were facing bans Zed before the next lobby. Zed is banned for both teams for the 2nd and 3rd games and even up to the 5th if it's a set that long. TSM would also be banning something Curse picked.

I mean come on. The spectators deserve something nice too some of the time, don't they? I'm so tired of not being able to see famed, great picks.

Abrain9/27/2013, 3:04:01 AM1 votes

I have to agree with that. I really enjoyed watching the group stages because there were so many games getting played. The people WANT to see more games. The more games you can give them the better. It also just seems like a fair way to give teams with a bye to play a bit more.

Solan Stonewhip10/15/2013, 7:30:01 PM1 votes

i think it's safe to say, RIOT won't have the same tourney next year. didn't they try the double elimination in season 2, i don't remember any byes that year? i think they're still experimenting. and they're even talking about adding more ban's as a way of making champ select more favorable and more teamwork oriented. who knows how that will go. but yeah i agree, this years tournament format wasn't as good as it could have been. i enjoyed the eu playoffs more than worlds finals.

but i mean, now we have south american and australian servers at what point do those regions merit their own LCS? i mean, if you just do the top 8 teams. then you're only getting the top 3 from each of the leagues. and 3 wild cards. they'll probably have to expand the format given how popular the game has become. especially if they add leagues in south america and southeast asia(malaysia indo-australia/nz areas) one thing for sure, things will change. and in a much more progressive/user input/communicative manner than say facebook.

positives: i enjoyed the analyst desk (particularly montechristo) and they would have to spread such resources even thinner in such a format. there were probably complaints of having the b stream from the previous worlds (i remember it was difficult to choose between watching clg eu and m5 when they were playing against opponents...) this format meant you could watch all the games. which is a positive. i think that going back to the format you suggest would irritate as many people as who would like it. personally i end up watching the VOD's over the next few weeks anyway because i miss half the games because of work or life. so, for me, more games is better...

Pollyanna Wright2/17/2014, 7:26:14 PM1 votes

I would like a Loser's bracket.